News Trend Portraits By Wendy|Actual

I mean, there's the selfie, but that's just the tip of the portraiture iceberg.

What about all the shots we take

at birthday parties and weddings

and graduations and vacations;

on our world travels and our weekend hijinks;

when friends come to visit

and when family members go away.

We fill albums with images,

we flood them onto social media,

we send them out as Christmas cards,

and we slip them into frames and place them around our homes and treasure them every day of our lives.

We humans really do love to look at our beloved.

Now, most of the time, our portraits come in the form of photographs. Which is all well and good.

But once in a while, isn't it interesting and fun to capture our likenesses in another form of art?

Enter here my friend, Wendy, who is taking a novel approach to portraiture by creating charmingly minimalist paintings of humans.

And dogs.

Now, I'll be honest. When I first glanced at this painting of a class of family friends, I felt unnerved.

Where are their faces??? What is the use of a family portrait if I can't see anyone's faces?!

But then I looked again.

And I realized that through the subtlest of detail - hair styles, face shapes - Wendy had captured the exact essence of each person in this class.

Quickly, I locked down a name to each blank face. I got everyone right the first time.

And now that my eyes are opened, my brain can immediately fill in those blanks and this painting comes alive for me every time I look at it. I no longer see blank faces; I see the person behind the face, and each one is beautiful.

Here's the photo that Wendy used to develop this portrait:

As you can see from this source photo, Wendy's art captures the nuances of the class without attempting to recreate a perfect image of reality.

And you know what that means:

no half-closed eyes

no double chins

no crooked smiles

or any of the other horrible things that often go wrong in photos. .

As a person who struggles to take a decent photo, I find Wendy's artistic renderings to be a gift.

Speaking of which, I think Wendy's portraits make a wonderful gift for a newly married couple, a family with a newborn, a group of college friends, or a family reunion. There's no end to the combinations of humans who would love to see themselves immortalized in Wendy's whimsical style.

And I'm looking forward to the day when I can gather my family from across the continents for a group shot so we can have Wendy paint our portrait too.

* * * * *

If you are interested in having Wendy paint a portrait for you, message her on Facebook atWendy Created To Create.

She paints directly on wood so there is no need for framing, which makes her art an affordable option.

Prices are $75 for a 7" x 7" or $95 for a larger custom size, such as the one shown here.

And each portrait comes with a wooden easel for display. How cute is that?!